1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a personal authentication system and its method for providing improved securities, especially to a system and a method for personal authentication based on multiple-information from a bar code reading device, a digital camera and a finger print sensor.
2. Description of the Related Art
A bar code reading device, a finger print sensor, and a face recognition camera have been known as security devices used at various facilities.
A card with the bar code data including one's address, name, and the name of the company and the department this person is working for, is given to the person. When the person tries to enter the facility, the facility performs a verification of this person by using a bar code reading device as one of the personal authentication methods.
An individual fingerprint is stored in a database for one of the personal authentication methods by using a fingerprint sensor. When a person enters the facility, the fingerprint data read by the fingerprint sensor is compared to the fingerprint in the database for the personal authentication.
Also, an individual facial photograph is stored in a database for one of the personal authentication methods with a face recognition camera. When a person enters the facility, the face data read by the face recognition camera is compared to the face data in the database for the personal authentication.
However, since the bar code reading device, the fingerprint sensor, and the face recognition camera are used independently, the accuracy of the personal authentication is limited. For example, when the bar code reading device is used alone, it is not possible to know if the person with the bar code card is the authentic person. Also, the fingerprint sensor or the face recognition camera alone cannot provide the other personal data.
An Intacta code that can store a vast amount of information has been known as one of two-dimensional bar code systems. However, since a scanner performs the reading of the Intacta code, a large size reading device and a relatively long reading time are required.
This invention is, therefore, directed to size reduction of the reading device and to the improvement of the reading speed, by using an area sensor for reading the Intacta code.
However, when the focal distance of the lens mounted on the area sensor is short for the size reduction of the reading device, the projected image of the Intacta code has distortion and bright spots (brightness imbalance), preventing the accurate reproduction of the recorded information.